Thinking about other options made me realize why I chose this place to begin with. I really do love being part of this team." -- Malik Morgan

There were a few
moments, maybe even a few days, last spring when a dream Malik Morgan had hatched
and formed and fostered for as long as he could remember started to wobble a
bit. Never to the point where the former John Curtis Christian star wandered
into change-of-scenery territory.

Not completely anyway.

With some choppy waters
navigated, courtesy of a sit-down, heart-to-heart talk with LSU coach Johnny
Jones, Morgan's dream is alive and well. Perhaps even stronger than ever.

The 6-foot-4 guard who
starred on courts all over New Orleans and the state for the Patriots for six
years, culminating with a 2012 state championship, will take the court at the
Pete Maravich Assembly Center with the rest of teammates in an exhibition game
against Xavier at 7 p.m.

For those brief
fleeting moments last May, that seemed to be up in the air. But Morgan and
Jones met, and the future was put back on track.

"There was just some
thinking I needed to do," said Morgan, who started 14 of 31 games, averaged
18.3 minutes and 5.3 points and provided dazzling glimpses of the player
regarded among the best to come out of New Orleans in the last 10 years.

"I sat down with family
and talked about it. I decided I had been productive enough as a freshman that
this was the place for me. There was never a concern for me that the team or the
program wasn't right for me."

In fact, Morgan said it
"was never that close" to where he was set to depart, a notion some people
close to him indicated right after the spring semester ended.

Jones was not one of
those people, though, and that turned out to be a huge piece of the puzzle.

To understand the relationship
between coach and player requires some rewinding.

Because Jones got the
job in April of 2012 - after Morgan had signed a letter of intent - there was
some unfamiliarity between the two from the beginning. And with unfamiliarity
sometimes comes a few growing pains.

Combine that with the
emotions Morgan encountered like all freshmen do, most notably going from
superstar to a member of a team full of players who starred at the prep level,
and uncertainty was born.

As a first-year coach
who inherited a team sorely lacking in depth, Jones had to push players in
different ways. With Morgan, who was often thrust into the role of playing a
small forward spot and defending bigger players, that meant some tough love
when it came to honing the level of defensive skills Jones wants.

At times it was hard to
grasp why Morgan - a starter in nine of 18 SEC games - wasn't a bigger part of
the Tigers' thin rotation. He showed he could score, both as a perimeter
shooter and as a driver and offensive rebounder. But Morgan's defensive
struggles led to regular foul trouble and decreased minutes down the stretch.

Malik Morgan and LSU coach Johnny Jones bolstered their relationship during the offseason and now the relationship is 'though the roof.'Brett Duke, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune

"Sometimes a coach has
to do what he's got to do, and me as a player, I've got to learn to be better,"
Morgan said.

The lessened role might've
triggered the kind of doubt most college freshmen encounter, and the result was
the uncertainty late in the spring.

Curtis coach Mike
Kracjer said Morgan had "several options." There were rumblings that Tulane and
Oklahoma had a spot for the guard with e silky jump shot and scorer's mentality
if he did decide to leave LSU.

Then came the talk with
Jones.

"We did sit down and talk
and we decided what I was doing positive for the team, and how we could build a
relationship moving into the future," said Morgan, the oldest son of former LSU
volleyball star Detra Morgan. "This offseason really helped get our
relationship going in the right direction. Right now the relationship I have
with Coach Jones is through the roof. To get the best out of me, he had to be
hard on me. He explained to me what I needed to work on over the summer."

Kracjer unabashedly calls Morgan one of the best players he has
ever or will ever coach. The longtime New Orleans prep coach knew where his
former player's heart was.

"Basically the options were, he always wanted to stay at LSU;
that's where he's always wanted to go," Kracjer said. "He really likes Coach Jones
a lot and he thinks he can learn a lot and pursue a further career."

That will happen, with the prescriptions Jones gave Morgan as
the impetus.

Morgan spent the summer working on his body and will play at
around 200 pounds, 15 more than he carried last season when he got knocked
around at times.

"It was something I had
to commit to -- get in the weight room, stay strong and fit and make sure my body
is ready for this conference," Morgan said.

With a new NCAA rules emphasis on defensive rules, Morgan also
dedicated himself to improving as a defender.

As a freshman, Morgan averaged a foul for every 8 minutes
played. He accrued three fouls 11 times and fouled out three times. Only Johnny
O'Bryant fouled out more often (six times).

A feathery outside jump shot has always been part of LSU sophomore Malik Morgan's game.Hilary Scheinuk, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Part of the cause was the chore of trying to check bigger,
stronger and more experienced players, sometimes in the paint where Morgan was
more accustomed to gliding through than hunkering down.

"I really think it was
a mental thing and I struggled with what I needed to do better at times,"
Morgan said. "Coach Jones got on me all last season about my defense. It was something
I worked on and focused on to get better at."

While Jones might've
played the bad cop role with his talented freshmen, he also saw plenty of
positive signs.

"The
great thing about Malik is from year one to year two, as the season went on, he
continued to improve - not only each game, but in each practice," Jones said. "The
good sign for a coach is that you're not hesitant to put a player in no matter
who the opponent is or what the situation is, and I felt that way about Malik.

"Malik probably benefited from this
offseason as much as anyone on our team. I know he's excited about the strength,
the quickness, the ball-handling skills that he's improved and his shot - all
those things he's really had a chance to work on and improve. When you have
that type of improvement, on top of the impact he had last year, we're really
excited about what he can do for us this year."

Especially if the
defense is upgraded.

Malik Morgan has worked hard to improve on defense, an area where he had growing pains in 2012-13.Hilary Scheinuk, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

"The thing he's got to
continue to work on, just like our other players with these new rules in play,
is not playing with a lot of hand-checking," Jones said. "It's something he has
to continue to get better at. Malik has quick feet and he has learned how to
defend that way instead of so much with his hands."

Along the way, Morgan
has also fortified his confidence.

As the centerpiece of a Curtis
team that rolled up a 30-3 record in 2012, Morgan was plenty confident He
averaged 18.1 points, 5 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game and regularly hung up
scoring totals in the 30s, with a career-best 56 against Riverside.

Regarded as the best
in-state player to sign with LSU in former coach Trent Johnson's four-year
tenure, Morgan was the 2012 Class 2A Player of the year and the Times-Picayune
small school player of the year.

But the reality of
college-level ball knocked him down several notches.

That meant some building
back up, and once Morgan's future got back on the right course, his confidence
followed.

"He's a year older, and now he's got experience and understands
adversity and how to push through," Detra Morgan said.

"I think he knew all along it was going to take hard work, but
it's a lot different when you get to college and see how hard it is. His
confidence is at a much different point now. He knows he's got to wait for his
time, and he has to continually improve."

That task is much easier -- a dream much more in focus -- at the
place where a player wants to be.

Whether it was Detra Morgan's experience in purple-and-gold, the
uptick in success the Tigers had when Malik Morgan first started paying
attention to college basketball in 2005-09 or what, he has maintained from the
time he started getting recruited that LSU was where he wanted to be.

In the LSU media guide, Morgan pegs the Tigers program as his "dream
school since (he) was a baby."

So much so that when he verbally committed to Johnson, Morgan
told other schools to not bother calling any more.

To have an in-state player with that much affinity for a program
is hard to replicate, and Jones - a DeRidder native - knows that well.

"When you've got kids
who are talented like that and want to be part of something special, you can't
beat it," Jones said. "You know they're going to put their heart and soul into
doing everything they can to help make it special. That's what we have in
Malik. He's a guy who has a passion for this place. He loves being a part of
LSU. It really means something to him, and he's going to do everything he can
to make sure we're successful. There's no substitute for that."

Even if it took a
little soul searching to come back around to that understanding.

"Thinking about other
options made me realize why I chose this place to begin with," Morgan said. "I
really do love being part of this team.

"I'm real excited about
getting this season going, and I can't wait to help us make a championship run.
That's why I came here."